How is there still no thraed of Brent Faiyaz

bout to have the number one album in america

radiohead of R&B

tim finney year end list cosign

elevating rockist and authenticity soaked cliches to a state of pristine R&B

subverting the toxicity meme via craft and emotion

album's great but i can't believe he didn't put "mercedes" on it

or "show u off"

could have dumped the Tyler song and included Circles, Mercedes, Show U Off .... or even one of the old leaks, people really want "Wish You Well"

however theres a strong ten+ track project in there which does what no other R&B is doing

"wasting time" probably could go too, it works better in context but drake just kills the vibe

it's a little frustrating as an album because it could easily have been even better considering the material he had lying around, but there's still plenty to love and it's an absolute triumph that something like this is doing so well commercially

and i don't ever want to listen to the skits again, the last one especially is such a momentum killer

yea rly good album, glad it's doing so well too given that radio somehow still doesn't know what to do w/ him

i like the album, i like him. is it fair to knock him for kinda making the same song over and over? one of the reasons i loved "show u off" was it had a more overt tension release and lift, some tempo, than his songs typically contain. as i listen to song number whatever that hangs motionless in the air sounding immaculate i do wonder if he has a sound or a gimmick? is anything on this album better than "fuck the world" and "rehab" ? i would prob put "dead man walking" in that convo

"price of fame" and "loose change" are also highlights here

I don’t think his songs sound the same at all. That’s the whole appeal

Angel is also fire, rolling stone, Jackie brown

new album out tomorrow

14 songs. Midnight. https://t.co/XE0DYYSYeA

— Lord Faiyaz (@brentfaiyaz) October 26, 2023

this is just fine? nothing bad here or anything but nothing to really get excited about either

it’s pretty great front to back imo, much lower stakes than the last one, in a good way

my fav

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWktNJekyxU

also really love this one, wish it was longer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMLzvgqzyFM

i can't decide how much i like this album ... i think the nostalgia stuff at the beginning is competent but feels a bit beneath him. i mean, a "no scrubs" sample?

i really like the middle stretch of "outside all night," "wherever i go," "upset" and "on this side" ... it feels to me like he's finally expanding the "crew" cinematic universe. i've found that to be a really replayable stretch. i even laughed at one of asap rocky's lines

i don't mind the nostalgic stuff in the beginning, makes it clear that it's gonna be a loose, low stakes affair. it's a welcome change of pace after wasteland, which i liked a lot, but was hella melodramatic

new album icon coming on feb 13

really need this album to be good...

none of the songs he's released interstitially have stuck w/ me but i should go back

i wasn't crazy about his song on the rocky album. idk if i have even heard the songs he dropped in fall 2025

raphael saddiq is supposedly involved as an exec. producer, so that's a pretty good sign

*saadiq

yeah thats got me interested

he has been putting new stuff up on youtube only the last 6 months or so, cool vibes as always but nothing terribly memorable. then he allegedly scrapped a fully finished album in order to release this one, tho maybe that was just wrestling style album promo who knows

this sounds awesome to me on first listen. it sounds like an album miguel should’ve made at some point

incredible chad hugo co-produced sophistipop song being a real cherry on top

it's so good, shame it's so short

i guess his breakout tapes were also in the 30-ish minutes range, and wasteland was the outlier.

honestly, there are so many highlights that i'm struggling to single them out haha

this is really solid, i'm glad he's finally put out something that's this strong the whole way through

"strangers" is a real highlight

this album is front to back great to me. i don’t think it’s too short, if anything i think his last two projects were overlong and the brevity of this one flatters it. there is sonic cohesion and even my least favorite songs i still think are pretty good.

i think the 80s pop stuff on here will be the sticking point for a lot of people but i think he pulls it off, even on “used to,” which isn’t one of the best songs, but he’s more believable singing that kinda song that way than i may have thought. “have to” is just flat out great to me. the way he uses pitch shifting on this album is really effective, something they did on SWAG too which this album reminds me of in ways. but there’s lots of cool counter melodic elements happening with pitch shifted vocals that i like. i also think the disco pop beats thread thru to some of the better songs on the album like “world is yours” and “pure fantasy” which build out a larger synth pop world. and then the real wheelhouse brent songs are really well done.

i also like how much he’s simping across this album. i like the earnestness of i.e. “butterflies” and “four seasons.” i find it easier to engage with his person over the course of a full album when the braggadocious stuff he does really well is balanced out a bit. i think this is aoty material for me

i wish it were a little sonically bolder, like some of his best previous work, but it's easily his best front-to-back.

swag is exactly what came to mind for me as well

so this album is sort of a flop commercially, seems largely reviled by his fanbase, and has been met by indifference at best by critics -- and yet i can't stop listening to it, i have played it in full almost every day since it came out, and is def one of my favorite albums of the last several years. an album i love that i find to be deeply misunderstood by nearly everybody -- this is an Extreme Classic to me

the pitchfork review described an experience i don't have w/ this album, largely focusing on brent's ability (or inability) to write compelling lyrics in loverman mode. i think i would agree that the lyrics are often largely functional, but i still listen to i.e. "butterflies," with its very simple lyrics about falling in love -- brent singing the words "how do you feel? / is it anything like i feel?", letting them hang there in the air -- and find it to be a really emotionally affecting song. "world is yours" is one of the best love songs i've heard in years! idk, i love this album

yeah i was pretty surprised by the reception to this album, thought the songwriting was elegant, and the vocal arrangements very beautiful. i am not and have never been a lyrics-first listener, and mostly notice them when they’re bad enough to break the trance, but nothing on this does that for me

yeah i agree with that. i wouldn't listen to this if i was listening to it for the lyrics (which aren't actively bad just fairly forgettable) but i also wouldn't listen to his previous stuff for the lyrics since his previous persona was 'comically toxic asshole'

I found this album disappointing but then I heard a random track on the radio and it felt good so I want to revisit

I think he had more fun writing lyrics when the subject was a lil more toxicity oriented

this album strikes me very much as something you wouldn't really love

i definitely get why others would find him more compelling when he's being toxic, lyrically he is better at that, but that was never the appeal to me

I mean, the appeal to me was great songs, the toxicity "branding" is shallow but I thought the songs were much more interesting in terms of conveying their concepts and ideas effectively before...that said hes a genius so I am still a fan

i like this album

ama & brent faiyaz - “need it bad”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_l2a-L7IT4

been playing this a ton, great r&b record